CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
Antigua and Barbuda blanked last
week’s special conference of the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) leaders
where Barbados Prime Minister, Mia
Mottley handed over the chairmanship
of the 15-member regional grouping
to her St. Vincent and the Grenadines
counterpart, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves.
The Guyana-based
CARICOM Secretariat
had earlier announced
that the regional leaders
will host their 20th
Special Meeting via video conference
after they agreed during their Ninth
Special Meeting in April to stage the
handing-over ceremony at the beginning
of July.
Antigua and Barbuda’s position is
linked to the efforts to liquidate the
financially-strapped regional airline,
LIAT, which is headquartered in St.
John’s, Antigua.
The shareholder governments are
Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica,
and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
“There are some regional leaders
who see our regional institution, carrier,
LIAT, as a ‘predator’ and they are
determined to keep their knees on its
neck to prevent its regeneration,” Prime
Minister Gaston Browne wrote on his
Facebook page.
The Antigua and Barbuda government
said cabinet “held a full discussion
on the future of LIAT 1974 Ltd.”
and that it is “developing a plan for a
new LIAT, which includes an invitation
to private entities to invest in that new
carrier.
Barbados
Barbados-based Caribbean Climate
Outlook Forum (CariCOF) has warned
that the increasingly wet period in
Belize and the islands will be accompanied
by high flooding, flash flooding
and landslide potential.
In its latest edition
of Caribbean Outlook
Newsletter, CariCOF
said the dry season
ended with several
areas experiencing short-term drought
while a greater proportion of the region
ended up in the long-term drought.
It said with temperatures significantly
above average in April and May,
some record temperatures, a number
of heatwaves and further drying of soils
occurred in this period.
But CariCOF said the period July
to September it is predicting regional
countries should be prepared for flooding,
flash floods and landslides as a
result of an increasing wet period.
It said the region could also be affected
“by strong tropical cyclone activity
from August onward.”
Caribbean L 4 ife, July 10-16, 2020
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is the new chair of CARICOM.
Associated Press / Craig Ruttle, File
St. Lucia
The Organization of Eastern Caribbean
States (OECS) says it has taken
note of moves by United States legislators
to classify “human trafficking” the
Cuban humanitarian project assisting
countries deal with the impact of the
coronavirus (COVID-19).
In a statement,
the nine-member
sub-regional grouping
said that it “notes
with deep concern and
repudiates the recent bill introduced by
Republican Senator Rick Scott, which
classifies Cuba’s humanitarian assistance
as “human trafficking” and seeks
to extend punitive measures against
countries accepting this medical assistance.”
“The OECS Authority gratefully values
the work of the Henry Reeve Medical
Brigades and has reiterated its desire
to work with all friendly governments
that offer tangible support in the face
of the grave existential threat posed to
lives and livelihoods in the small island
states,” the statement said.
The OECS countries that have benefitted
from the Cuban project are Antigua
and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada,
St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
and St. Kitts-Nevis.
It said 475 Cuban medical personnel
are also working alongside their
Caribbean counterparts in Barbados
and Jamaica to assist in managing the
spread of COVID-19.
Guyana
Venezuela has renewed its position
that the International Court of Justice
(ICC) does not have the jurisdiction
to hear the border dispute with Guyana
and urged Georgetown to renew
negotiations between themselves on
the matter.
Venezuela last week
boycotted the ICJ’s
first hearing on the
more than century-old
border dispute saying
the UN’s top tribunal.
It had said in a statement, “It sincerely
invites the sister Republic Cooperative
of Guyana to renew the negotiations to
which both nations are bound by virtue
of Geneva agreement with the purpose
of reaching amicably an acceptable and
satisfactory practical arrangement for
both republics.”
The hearing was originally scheduled
for March 23-27 and would have determined
whether the court has jurisdiction
over the case, filed by Guyana on
March 28, 2018, to obtain a final and
binding judgement that the 1899 Arbitral
Award, which established the location
of the land boundary, between then
British-Guiana and Venezuela, remains
valid and binding and that Guyana’s
Essequibo region belongs to Guyana
and not Venezuela.
Venezuela lays claim to more than
two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass,
including its exclusive economic zone
where more than eight billion barrels of
oil deposits have been discovered.
Haiti
Haiti became the first Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) country to
pass the 6,000 mark as the Frenchspeaking
country recorded 70 new cases
of COVID-19 up to last week.
While the figure
appears to give the
impression that the
country recorded less
cases of the virus in
recent weeks, the Ministry of Public
Health said that two more deaths were
recorded pushing the total to 107.
It said that since the first case of the
virus was recorded on March 19, Haiti
now has more than 6,500 cases with
the majority being men.
Prior to the recent figures, Haiti
recorded 42 cases and the ministry said
there are now 4,905 active cases, while
the number of suspected cases investigated
since the pandemic was first
reported in the impoverished island in
March reported 12,566.
Apart from Haiti, the other CARICOM
countries recording increased
numbers of positive cases are Jamaica
with 702 cases and 10 deaths and Guyana
with 248 cases and 13 deaths.
Continued on Page 18
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Gonzales new CARICOM chair
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